Sunday, 26 June 2011

Where'd that pesky bike lane go?

One of my pet hates is disappearing bike lanes. If we're going to have them, let's do it properly. The current half-arsed approach annoys the hell out of me.

The above video was shot on one of the main roads in this area - on Sunday morning, traffic is very light. At any other time, it's covered in cars and is an absolute madhouse - hence the bike lane for most of its length. Even then, I totally avoid riding on it during peak hour - it's just too risky. Too many people driving too fast for the conditions, having left their patience at home that day.

The speed limit is 50 - I'm doing a bit over 30. You go into the corner, pop out the other side and - whoa! where's the bike lane dude? It just ceases for no good reason. The road is wide enough to have a bike lane - in fact it used to be two lanes wide for cars, but one lane was removed not long ago. It would be a piece of cake to continue with the lane marking, but it just stops. Maybe council ran out of money?

Even with a marked lane there, note how the car that passes me cuts the corner - I reckon they were doing well over 60. That's pretty normal on this corner, and I've occasionally seen the cops parked just around the bend, busting speeders. I've had some close calls here where cars have approached the corner way too fast and have tried to cut it in order to get around it, not realising that there's a bike over to the side that they have to get around. It's not pleasant having a car try to shave the hairs off your legs at 60km/h.